According to the study from the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Trump’s economic and immigration proposals would hasten the insolvency of the Social Security Trust Fund and trigger harsh cuts to benefits:

President Trump’s proposals to eliminate taxation of Social Security benefits, end taxes on tips and overtime, impose tariffs, and expand deportations would all widen Social Security’s cash deficits. Under our central estimate, we find that President Trump’s agenda would:

• Increase Social Security’s ten-year cash shortfall by $2.3 trillion through FY 2035.
• Advance insolvency by three years, from FY 2034 to FY 2031 – hastening the next President’s insolvency timeline by one-third.
• Lead to a 33 percent across-the-board benefit cut in 2035, up from the 23 percent CBO projects under current law.
• Increase Social Security’s annual shortfall by roughly 50 percent in FY 2035, from 3.6 to 4 percent of payroll.
• Require the equivalent of reducing current law benefits by about one-third or increasing revenue by about one-half to restore 75-year solvency.

ABC World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News all omitted CRFB’s findings from their political coverage, instead choosing to focus on Trump’s other lies and bizarre soundbites from over the weekend. 

ABC’s campaign coverage included a statement from Arnold Palmer’s daughter, who condemned “disrespectful and inappropriate” comments Trump made about the late golfer’s genitalia during a Pennsylvania rally. (All three networks mentioned the bizarre moment during their broadcasts.)

Even though the outlet published an online article about the CFRB report earlier that day, CBS also omitted the story from its prime-time coverage. CBS Evening News mentioned Trump’s profane attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, his refusal to endorse raising the federal minimum wage, and Trump again repeating the debunked lie that FEMA spent disaster relief money on aid to migrants.

NBC’s on-air campaign coverage highlighted a recent instance of Trump “still suggesting, without evidence, the election could be tainted by fraud.” Another election-related segment explained how high housing costs limit access to life-saving air conditioning for low-income seniors in Arizona. “I thought maybe my Social Security would be a little bit more, but it’s not.” one resident told NBC.

Broadcast networks failing to report this breaking news about how Trump's economic agenda could result in harsh cuts for current and future Social Security beneficiaries is yet another example of the network's largely failing to adequately cover important economic news for their millions of nightly viewers.

Trump and his right-wing media sycophants have repeatedly attempted to distance themselves from the GOP's longstanding efforts to gut Social Security. In addition to decimating the economy in a variety of other ways, his campaign proposals would do exactly that.